You’ll never have to wait more than five minutes for a métro before 10:30 p.m. next year, the Société de transport de Montréal promises.

That was one of the goodies in the public corporation’s 2017 budget, unveiled on Wednesday.

After seeing the first decrease in ridership this century in 2015, the STM has promised to up its game for next year, adding buses and métro trains during the morning and afternoon rush hours, and even during off-peak periods. STM general manager Luc Tremblay said he doesn’t know the projected ridership numbers for 2016, but he expects the new spending will result in a significant boost in 2017.

“We have seen that when we invest in adding service, it is the best predictor of an increase in riders,” Tremblay said.

The STM has tightened its belt to spend more money on extra bus driver hours and to purchase additional buses, Tremblay said. The $1.4-billion budget includes a six-per-cent increase in the contribution the STM receives from the city of Montreal and the Montreal agglomeration, and a funding boost from the Quebec government to buy new buses to offset congestion caused by major roadwork projects, namely the Turcot Interchange reconstruction. The federal government has also increased its level of funding to pay for maintenance and to build elevators in métro stations.

The increase in bus service amounts to about two per cent. The métro will also see a boost, with trains arriving more frequently, resulting in a six-per-cent increase in service, Tremblay said.

The increase is partially due to the purchase of the new AZUR-model trains that resulted in more trains overall in the fleet, Tremblay said.

There will be a five-minute maximum waiting time between trains during off-peak hours, until 10:30 p.m. The closing hours of the Blue Line will also be extended by 30 minutes. Currently the last trains in both directions begin their runs at 12:15 a.m.

Tremblay said it was the biggest increase in métro service since the Laval métro opened in 2007. It’s also the most significant increase in bus service since 2012.

Philippe Cousineau-Morin, a spokesperson for the public transit advocacy group Transport 2000 Quebec, said he was pleased with the budget.

“It’s nice to see a significant increase, especially after the stagnation we have seen in the last few years,” he said.

Projet Montréal was less optimistic, calling it an opportunistic move during an election year.

“This is the budget that we should have seen three years ago,” said Craig Sauvé, party spokesperson for public transit issues. “But when Denis Coderre started his mandate, he actually cut the budget of the STM. That resulted in service delays, and we’re still catching up with that.”

Sauvé said the STM has fallen behind in its pledge to increase service. The corporation’s 2020 plan called for 2,000 buses to be in the fleet by 2017, but next year’s budget only calls for 1,800.

Coderre denied public transit is an afterthought for his administration.

“I’ve been providing the necessary resources since I came into office,” he said. “It was a priority; we did focus on public transit.”

Other budget highlights:

107 new hybrid buses will be purchased, equipped with air-conditioning and USB ports to allow riders to charge their electronic devices.

The métro will be open all night on Dec. 31, for New Year’s Eve, starting this year.

The iBus system (with GPS trackers installed in buses) is expected to be up and running in the first half of the year, allowing riders to track their buses on their smartphones or to see when the next buses will arrive on digital panels erected at most métro stations and several high-frequency bus stops.

Comments

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.